Sometimes Eating is Better Than Cooking

Just when you were thinking to yourself (who else would you be thinking to, eh?), "Wonder whatever happened to Karen's blog?" here it is again. Those who know me well know that, while I enjoy cooking, I don't really think of myself as on vacation unless someone else makes my bed and someone else cooks my meals and then cleans up. Michael and I, therefore, had a lovely pre-Christmas vacation in New York City these past few days. We left Saturday morning for Baltimore, where we were served a lovely lunch by our friends Karen and Hugh, who live half the year in Balto and half the year on Islesford. Karen's mother, our friend Ann, was staying with them a few days, and Ann's grandsons, Marcus and Robin, along with Robin's wife Stephanie, had lunch with us as well. I suppose it was actually brunch, as we started with bloody Marys and mimosas, followed by sausages and a hard-boiled egg casserole and fruit salad. From there, we went to the 20-something annual music fest (can you tell the name escapes me?) at Gaucher College, where we were surrounded by the tones of guitar, hammered dulcimer, and flute. Then we went to the Chameleon for dinner. I had scallops and a beet salad; Michael had lamb. Several of us shared what was supposed to be the best chocolate cake ever, but most agreed that Karen Smallwood's chocolate cake is better.
After a quick breakfast at Elaine and Peyton's Sunday morning, we headed to Wilmington to catch the train. By 2:00 we were in New York, and by 3:00 we were checked it at 49th and Broadway. We took a walk up Broadway and stopped in at the Stage Deli for lunch/dinner. I had a "split knish with corned beef and melted Swiss cheese" and Michael had knackwurst and baked beans. There was so much to eat that we pretty much called it a night, though we did take a huge slice of coconut cake back with us. We did walked  to Langan's on 47th for a wee spot 'o Redbreast, the finest Irish whiskey, and then Michael walked across 49th to the Food Emporium for a quart of milk, which we had with the cake at bedtime.
Monday morning we walked up to 53rd to have breakfast at the Cafe Europa, where one can get coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice, eggs, bacon, home fries and toast for less that $10 a person. And no tip.
We walked on to Central Park and Wollman's (I don't care what the Donald wants to call it) where we were ripped off by a sweet-talking con man. Or let's tell the truth--I gave him $10 for his homeless kids charity. Michael never believed he was legit, though we both hoped he was, since he used his dead mother to weasel his way into our conversation.
We spent a while at the holiday vendor fair, a combination of junk and fine merchandise in tents on Columbus Circle just outside Central Park, and then caught a subway down to West 4th. We visited several of our favorite haunts: Rocco's for coffee and pastry, Olivier and Sons for olive oils and balsamic vinegars, and Bleeker Street Records for CDs and LPs. Then we continued up Bleeker to the Village Tannery, where Michael bought me another leather handbag. I think I now have five from them. Each one is unique and they will also make bags to order.
On the way back to the subway, we stopped in the Pearl Oyster Bar and asked about dinner. The owner told us we'd beat the crowd if we got there before 7:30, so that's what we did. We went back to the hotel, rested a little with our feet up, and then duded ourselves up. We caught the subway back down to the Village and got to the Pearl a little before seven. We sat at the bar, which is where the action is, and started eating seafood. First, a large bucket of steamers, served with broth and butter for dipping. We pretty much hogged our way through those fairly quickly. Then Michael decided he wanted mussels and I had a bowl of clam chowder. We could see into the kitchen from where we were sitting, and we watched each item being cooked: the mussels were steamed in a large fry pan with another inverted on top; the clams were cooked and then added to the soup stock, which was then poured into another pan and finished with sherry. When these dishes arrived, YUM! Finally, we decided to split a lobster roll, because we couldn't bear to leave without having one, but we knew we couldn't handle one each. I don't know exactly what they do to the lobster and the buns at the Pearl, but their lobster roll is exquisite. We hauled ourselves out of there finally, and headed back uptown on the subway.
Tuesday morning we went back to the Cafe Europa and had the same breakfast (if it ain't broke) and then decided to go over to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree and watch the skaters there a little while. We did a little shopping at the Met Museum store and we tried to look for Legos at the Lego store, but it was packed with mad children and disturbed parents, so we hightailed it out of there. We decided not to have lunch since we had reservations at the Union Square Cafe for 6:00. We headed down to 14th street around 4 because they also have a holiday vendors fair, but nothing really caught our eye. Just before 6 we went in for dinner. The staff there is lovely, and we had a nice cozy table at a banquette. Sadly, the young man seated just behind Michael was apparently having a first date with a girl he was trying to impress, so he basically told her everything in the world, as if she had just been born, including things like "Scotch is a kind of whiskey, but I always thought it was just Scotch." I was lucky enough to be just far away to not be able to catch most of the words, just the nonstop voice.
The food and the service were both wonderful, though. We started with chestnut soup for Michael and a smoked salmon brushetta for me. Both were delicious, and Michael said the soup was "divine." Then we had our entrees: I had a cassouletta with sausages and chicken and Michael had lamb chops, which were cooked perfectly. We ended the evening with a trio of sorbets (me) and a chocolate mousse cake.
Wednesday morning started at Cafe Europa again, but this time we had egg-and-sausage sandwiches on everything bagels--even better! New York City has the best bagels in the world, and the best bagel bakery is H&H, which supplies almost all the restaurants and delis.
This time we headed down to Macy's Herald Square, which is almost always a mistake, but even more so four days before Christmas. Undaunted, we headed up by escalator to the 9th floor and worked our way back down, only to learn that Macy's doesn't really sell toys any more, except for a few plush teddies and other animals. Your child can, however, still meet Santa aboard Macy's choo-choo in Santaland. Relieved to be out of there, we headed back to the Village to actually buy our stock of cookies at Rocco's. We like to have a few for the party and some for Christmas eating. The ones we buy to take home are usually fig pockets and shortbreads, so we have things like chocolate lulus, babas au rhum, and lemon meringue pie while we enjoy the coffee.
We were in the mood for Chinese, so we stopped in the Marriott Marquis to ask the concierge for suggestions. He recommended John's Shanghai between 6th and 7th (I can't remember the street, but it was close) and it was great. We had steamed pork dumplings--not the best ever, but good--followed by Spicy pork with broccoli and chicken with eggplant and spicy garlic sauce. Once again, yum yum!
Ben&Jerry's in the room ended another day of eating.
Thursday morning we decided to go uptown to Sydney Greengrass, the Sturgeon King, (Amsterdam between 86 & 87) for a final New York brunch. We had coffee, nova salmon & cream cheese with onion on everything bagels, and a bowl of matzoh ball soup. The sandwiches were so good we had to take a dozen bagels to go. We took the subway back to our room, finished packing, caught a cab to Penn Station, and settled in to wait for our train.
Two hours after we boarded we were back in Wilmington and on our way home, with just two more stops, one at TJMaxx in Dover for a little last minute shopping, and Sonic in Bridgeville for a late night supper of hot dogs.
It was great to be home last night, and good to have bagels with brie for breakfast. I can cook for a long time on those memories. Oh yeah--the Rockefeller tree was really pretty, too.